An Unexpected Trip to Washington

On Mother's Day, we were surprised by Jared's mom and step-dad, who offered to help us make a trip out to Washington possible. Jared had a month break between the Spring and Summer semesters, and Nikki had a very small window in which she could still fly (due to being very pregnant, 34-35 weeks). And we also had to give ourselves enough time to get back, pack, and move on June 1st. After getting the okay from Nikki's doctor, we got an amazing deal (thanks to a guest pass that we got through our mileage card) and booked our flight out of Dallas for the next week. We couldn't have done it, even with the amazing deal, without the help of Jared's mom and step-dad. So we owe them a HUGE thank you!!

Given that the flights were out of Dallas, we had to drive down there, which is about a 4-hr drive. Thank you to Mom and Dad Alton for helping with gas money. We were also very grateful to Michelle (our friend from the OKC Zoo Trip), who lives approximately 30 minutes away from the airport and let us sleep at her house and gave us a ride to and from the airport at crazy hours of the day.

The traveling went really well, overall. Nikki was uncomfortable, but that was expected. And it really wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. On our flight to Seattle, our seats were not originally by each other. And to make it worse, we were each in the aisle behind the bathroom, so there would have been no seat in front of Jared to keep a bag of things to entertain Allie. Luckily, people on the plane were very sweet and moved around so that we could sit by each other in the next row. I think they were all willing to do whatever it would take to make the trip easier for an almost-2-year-old; their trip was thereby going to be better, too. And it really went pretty well.

As a disclaimer regarding the uneven number of pictures from the two sides of Washington, we were not the best at remembering to take pictures throughout the trip. Many, if not most, of our pictures from the Seattle-side were actually taken by Nikki's dad. Thank you, Dennis!

When we first got to Seattle, we visited Nikki's family for a few days. It was a lot of fun seeing Grandma and Grandpa Bobbie. Nikki's mom is called "Grandma Bobbie" by her other grandchildren, so we had Allie call her that, too. But Allie also started calling Nikki's dad, "Grandpa Bobbie." We jokingly called him "Bobbie two" for the rest of the trip. We also had a lot of fun visiting with Nikki's brothers, DJ and Nathan, and Nathan's family. Allie had a lot of fun playing with her cousins.

On the way home from the airport, we stopped by the Home Depot to visit Grandma Bobbie. On the way in, Allie saw the tractors and just had to "ride" one.

When we got back to the house, Allie helped water the plants. She didn't quite understand the need to share the water with all of the plants. She wanted to give ALL the water to one plant.

Allie's cousins, Hailee, Caidance, and Cole, soon arrived to play with her. It was a gorgeous day outside, so they mostly enjoyed playing in the yard. It's amazing how GREEN everything is. We definitely miss it!

Hailee, Caidance, Cole, and Allie
Allie loved the lawn mower toy!

 The kids also enjoyed a few fun rounds of "Ring Around the Rosie."

The cousins enjoyed playing with their Uncle Jared, too.

After some playtime, we walked down to the neighbor's house to feed the donkeys. This is always a favorite for the grandchildren. Hailee was such a good big cousin to Allie; she was like a mommy to her and helped her a lot. It was really cute to watch.

Hailee with Allie waiting for the donkeys to come see us

Nikki, Allie, Hailee, Caidance, Cole, Grandma Bobbie (head only), and Grandpa

Daddy and Allie feeding the donkeys

When we got home, Cole gave Allie a little ride around the house. Cole is four months older than Allie. They had a pretty good time together.

The next evening, we went to a park for some play and a pizza picnic. The kids had a great time. Allie really loved the horseys that they had. There were some both on and off of a merry-go-round.

Hailee and Allie
(Allie was very focused on making the horsey go back and forth.)

Caidance, Allie, Hailee, and Cole on the merry-go-round

Allie on another horsey

The most difficult aspect of the trip was probably Allie's sleep schedule, or lack thereof. We were two hours off from her normal timezone, and she knew how to get out of her pack-n-play. She just wanted to climb out and play. Again, it was a game to her. When we were in Eastern Washington, she slept on a bed, but it was still a game for her with getting out of bed and leaving the room. One day when we were still in Western Washington, we had gone somewhere in the morning and were returning home for Allie's nap when she started falling asleep. We did not want her to fall asleep in the car because we knew it would lessen the chance of her falling asleep when we got back to the house. Sleep won the battle in the car, and Allie did not nap at all when we got back. But here's a video of us trying to keep her awake.

(she kept saying, "cheese," whenever we'd say her name)

One night after a long struggle to get her to sleep, this is how we found her when she finally got quiet.

And she was smiley the next morning.

Here are some cute pictures of Allie.

We had a family dinner with Nikki's family one night and then left for the Tri-Cities the next day. Daddy and Allie got to take a little snooze on the car ride over.

We met Jared's mom and step dad in Yakima. Here's a picture of Grandma Terri with Allie.

We were welcomed home by two of Jared's sisters, Jeni and Michelle, along with their little kiddos. Allie was so excited to get out of the car and run around. She loved the cow, chickens, dogs, and cats. She just ran around taking turns chasing different ones. She also had fun playing with her cousins, Shyla and Lily. Sadly, we did not get many pictures of their fun together. We really enjoyed being able to spend time with Jeni, Michelle, Terri, and Dick. It was wonderful seeing them. We really appreciated that Michelle traveled from Idaho to come see us.

Our first night in the Tri-Cities, we went to dinner at a buffet called Granny's. Jared's brother Scott got to come with us, which was great because we hadn't been able to see him for a long time. We had a good time socializing, and the kids really did pretty well. We had some people comment on how well-behaved all of our kids were. Though that was before dessert. Jeni brought Allie and Shyla some ice cream, which they both gobbled up. I then got some and gave Allie a little more. Jeni then gave Shyla some, which apparently upset Allie, because Allie turned to Shyla and shouted, "NO!" at the top of her lungs. Shyla didn't know what to think; her face was priceless. We were all shocked. We had never seen Allie have an outburst quite like that before. Apparently, you don't come between Allie and ice cream.

The girls got to play a lot together at home. They mostly did well, but it was hard at times due to them all being around the same stage of learning to share. Plus, with Allie's lack of sleep, she progressively became more sensitive and dramatic when she didn't get to play with what she was wanting to play with. But overall, they seemed to have fun together.

Allie and Shyla on a crocodile teeter-totter

Allie and Shyla on Grandma and Grandpa's playground

Sunday morning we got to spend some time with Jared's dad at Jeni's house. It was nice to see him and get to catch up a little.

There was a big family picnic at the park on Sunday afternoon. We were so happy to see grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Our sister-in-law from Idaho, Sharon, also came to visit for the day with her kids. It was so much fun seeing everyone. We were so grateful that it was possible to get together with so much family, especially on short notice.

We had dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Kauer's house the next night. Allie got to play with her cousins some more. In addition to the girls, she also got to play with Andrew, Jared's cousin's son. At one point, they were all playing in the window. It is kind of hard to see, but below is a picture of them all at the window.

Shyla, Allie, and Andrew

 Jared's mom and sister, Jeni, made dresses for all the little girl cousins. They were absolutely adorable. We were able to get a picture of all of them in their dresses before we had to leave.

Shyla, Grandpa Carpenter, Lily, Isaac, Grandma Terri, Allie

Allie in her dress on a horsey that she absolutely loved.
She did come from Cowboy Country.

It seems that our trips to Washington are always whirl-wind trips. There's so little time to see so many people. We were so grateful to be able to go and see family, though. We miss being close to so many loved-ones. Thank you again to all those that made the trip possible.